November 29, 2011Michigan’s senate voted today to require schools to adopt anti-bullying PROGRAMS. Kudos on taking action, and requiring more than a vaguely-certified bullying point-person in each school. The politicians did their work. Now what? What kinds of programs? Will they be pre-emptive, or caught up with mediation and victim-services? For K-12, or just targeted grades? Is there funding allocated? How extensive will they be? Are school assemblies considered ‘programs’??( What do you remember from school assemblies??) How about ‘poster-campaigns’ or ‘respect for all’ week? (Does anyone expect these type of initiatives to be “enough” to be effective?) On what basis will such “programs” be adopted? (that is, who has answers and what are they?) How long between the passing of this bill, the answering of these questions, the implementation of ‘programs’, and the assessment of their effectiveness? In the meantime, what to do while we wait and watch? Bills and Laws are great, but it really doestake a village.